We show, up to h-cobordism, that the existence and uniqueness of connected sum decompositions of oriented 4-dimensional manifolds is an invariant of homotopy equivalence, assuming that the fundamental group of each summand is "good" in the sense of Freedman and Quinn. On a separate note, we observe that the Borel Conjecture is true in dimension 4 up to s-cobordism, assuming that the fundamental group satisfies the Farrell--Jones Conjecture.
Given a closed, smooth, connected, orientable $4$-manifold $M$, whose integral homology groups can have $2$-torsion, we determine the homotopy decomposition of the double suspension $Σ^2M$ as wedge sums of some elementary $\mathbf{A}_3^3$-complexes, which are $2$-connected finite complexes of dimension at most $6$. Furthermore, we utilize the Postnikov square (or equivalently Pontryagin square) to find sufficient conditions for the homotopy decompositions of $Σ^2M$ to desuspend to that of $ΣM$.
We use K-area homology to summarize some results about the Novikov conjecture and the Hirzebruch L-class. In fact, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions for closed manifolds to have a homotopy invariant L-class. In order to obtain additional properties we also introduce the cohomology of infinite K--area which preserves the cup product of singular cohomology.
We determine loop space decompositions of simply-connected four-manifolds, $(n-1)$-connected $2n$-dimensional manifolds provided $n\notin\{4,8\}$, and connected sums of products of two spheres. These are obtained as special cases of a more general loop space decomposition of certain torsion-free $CW$-complexes with well-behaved skeleta and some Poincaré duality features.
This paper provides a topological method for filling contact structures on the connected sums of $S^2\times S^3$. Examples of nonsymplectomorphic strong fillings of homotopy equivalent contact structures with vanishing first Chern class on $\#_k S^2\times S^3$ $(k\geq2)$ are produced.
We prove a formula for the conjugation action on the knot Floer complex of the connected sum of two knots. Using the formula we construct a homomorphism from the smooth concordance group to an abelian group consisting of chain complexes with homotopy automorphisms, modulo an equivalence relation. Using our connected sum formula, we perform some example computations of Hendricks and Manolescu's involutive invariants on large surgeries of connected sums of knots.
For a closed, oriented, odd dimensional manifold $X$, we define the rho invariant $ρ(X,E,H)$ for the twisted odd signature operator valued in a flat hermitian vector bundle $E$, where $H = \sum i^{j+1} H_{2j+1}$ is an odd-degree closed differential form on $X$ and $H_{2j+1}$ is a real-valued differential form of degree ${2j+1}$. We show that the twisted rho invariant $ρ(X,E,H)$ is independent of the choice of metrics on $X$ and $E$ and of the representative $H$ in the cohomology class $[H]$. We establish some basic functorial properties of the twisted rho invariant. We express the twisted eta …
Two constructions of contact manifolds are presented: (i) products of S^1 with manifolds admitting a suitable decomposition into two exact symplectic pieces and (ii) fibre connected sums along isotropic circles. Baykur has found a decomposition as required for (i) for all closed, oriented 4-manifolds. As a corollary, we can show that all closed, oriented 5-manifolds that are Cartesian products of lower-dimensional manifolds carry a contact structure. For symplectic 4-manifolds we exhibit an alternative construction of such a decomposition; this gives us control over the homotopy type of the co…
We extend the definition of Khovanov-Lee homology to links in connected sums of $S^1 \times S^2$'s, and construct a Rasmussen-type invariant for null-homologous links in these manifolds. For certain links in $S^1 \times S^2$, we compute the invariant by reinterpreting it in terms of Hochschild homology. As applications, we prove inequalities relating the Rasmussen-type invariant to the genus of surfaces with boundary in the following four-manifolds: $B^2 \times S^2$, $S^1 \times B^3$, $\mathbb{CP}^2$, and various connected sums and boundary sums of these. We deduce that Rasmussen's invariant a…
We revisit the construction of signature classes in C*-algebra K-theory, and develop a variation that allows us to prove equality of signature classes in some situations involving homotopy equivalences of noncompact manifolds that are only defined outside of a compact set. As an application, we prove a counterpart for signature classes of a codimension two vanishing theorem for the index of the Dirac operator on spin manifolds (the latter is due to Hanke, Pape and Schick, and is a development of well-known work of Gromov and Lawson).
As Oleg Viro describes in his paper, the most fundamental property of the Khovanov homology group is their invariance under Reidemeister moves. Viro constructes Khovanov complex and homology consisting of Jordan curves with sign and also gives a proof for the only case of first Reidemeister move by using his definition of Khovanov homology groups. In this paper, homotopy maps are obtained explicitly for the other Reidemeister moves, i.e. second and third.
For oriented manifolds of dimension at least 4 that are simply connected at infinity, it is known that end summing is a uniquely defined operation. Calcut and Haggerty showed that more complicated fundamental group behavior at infinity can lead to nonuniqueness. The present paper examines how and when uniqueness fails. Examples are given, in the categories TOP, PL and DIFF, of nonuniqueness that cannot be detected in a weaker category (including the homotopy category). In contrast, uniqueness is proved for Mittag-Leffler ends, and generalized to allow slides and cancellation of (possibly infin…
